Page 11 of Rejected By Blood (Mated in Silence 2)

Oh, gods above. Not now. Not like this.

So, I stepped back with the force of the honesty. It took the breath from my lungs no matter how long I’d known deep down that it was true.

“No you’re not. We’re not one of those harem things. She’s my mate, and that’s final.”

The cheek of this mate of mine. I knew he was hurt and stunned, but telling Shane and I what was final, well, it just wouldn’t do.

Shane ticked his gaze to me and so did Dean.

All it took was a look, and the beginnings of tears welled in his eyes. He knew, and he knew that I knew.

“Jillian, tell me the fucking truth.” I stood there, paralyzed, while he realized I couldn’t exactly answer his request. “Is he your mate too?”

My lungs failed to do their job. My heart slumped into my stomach, and my knees wobbled.

I nodded. Because he deserved the truth.

“He is your mate, too?” He repeated the question, and I nodded again. His voice was little more than a whisper, and somehow it slayed me even more than it would if he yelled.

“This is it. I’m in one of those harems. And here I came down on Christie for that and no...this can’t be. I wanted you all to myself. Am I not enough?”

I reached for him, trying to wordlessly assure him that of course he was enough, but fate had a reason for putting Shane in my life. I didn’t know what or how but it was something.

He wrenched his arm away from me, splitting my heart in two.

“I can’t handle this. I just...can’t.”

I watched my mate stomp into the woods as tears rivered down my face.

Wait, who was Christie?

Chapter Eleven

“Now what?” Shane stood there in my upended living room, the cozy home I’d started and Dean added to a mess. Not as big a mess as the one at Magda’s, but a lot of breakage nonetheless. “What do we do?”

I shrugged. If he meant about the fact Dean had taken off after Shane declared us mates and I didn’t deny it, not much we could do. I’d have to deal with him when he returned. If he referred to the disaster that was my home? I bent and flipped over an upended basket. I was going to clean up. I couldn’t even find anything to write on or with at this point. Making communication difficult.

He picked up a bowl and then, after looking around, turned a table rightside up and set the bowl on it. “I know you can’t talk, but maybe if we clean up enough we’ll find your pad or...have I seen you writing on a whiteboard?”

I nodded, scooping some pretty stones into a little basket before setting them next to the bowl on the table.

“I came to keep watch, and found someone just entering the house, so I followed them in. Before I could get a good look, they shifted, so I followed suit. Thanks for the pants, by the way.”

So they were Dean’s. Oh well.

“The intruder...I don’t even know what they wanted. I didn’t get the feeling it was a burglary.”

Of course not. What was there here to steal? It was a little nicer than it had been, but who would want our new mattress or the frying pan I’d so prized when Dean brought it to me.

“Anyway, we fought, and I got the better of him eventually, as should be obvious since he left.”

We were both picking things up and straightening them as he spoke, and I was really hoping to find any of my writing things soon or even my art supplies. I felt silenced in a way I hadn’t in a very long time, and I had a lot to say.

If he was my mate, and I believed he was, we should be able to talk as wolves, but now was not the time to test that. If I didn’t get the place straightened, Dean and I wouldn’t be able to get any rest.

Dean! He had taken off like a wolf out of a bonfire, singed fur and all. He must be so upset. Although I might be a little surprised he left me here with Shane. For so long.

I spotted my whiteboard and grabbed it, but nothing to write with. I was almost desperate enough to try to use a bit of burned wood from the stove, but feared it might damage the board, so I set it carefully on the windowsill and continued cleaning up.

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